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Dessert

Fig Cake

A layered cake with fig filling and sugar icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fig Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 375°F (190°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).

  2. Cream the butter and granulated sugar together.

  3. Dissolve the cornstarch in the sweet milk and add to the mixture.

  4. Sift the flour four times, adding the baking powder during the last sift.

  5. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  6. Divide the batter into three layers and bake until golden.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine the chopped figs and 1½ cups sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Pour ½ cup boiling water over the figs and sugar, then cook until it forms a paste.

  3. Spread the fig filling between the layers of cake.

Make the icing

  1. For the icing, boil 1 cup sugar with ¼ cup water until it reaches a hair stage.

  2. Pour the hot syrup over the slightly beaten egg whites, add flavoring, and whip until stiff enough to spread on the cake.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + figtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten whites trapped in the batter add lift and a light, airy crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender texture to the cake.
Cornstarch
Softens the crumb, giving a finer, more tender texture than flour alone.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the layers rise.
Figs
Chopped and cooked into a paste, they provide the filling's flavor and moisture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the batter and yields a dense layer.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, egg, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figthe original
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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